lacuna

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin lacūna (“hole, pit, pool; gap, want”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from lacus (“pond, lake; hollow”),^{[2][3][4][7][6]} of which Etymonline and Klein call it a diminutive.^[4][7] Etymonline gives the further source as Proto-Indo-European *laku- (“body of water, lake, sea”), and Ayto notes that the original idea seems to have been a hole or basin, with water a secondary development.^[4][8] The same Latin noun came through French and Italian as lagoon,^[9][4][8] which Barnhart calls a doublet.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A blank or missing portion in a text: 1663, from Moray in the Lauderdale Papers.^[2][3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged has 1652 for this sense,^[5] and Etymonline has the 1660s.^[4]

Semantic evolution

English borrowed the figurative Latin sense first, for a gap in a manuscript or inscription, and later extended it to any gap in knowledge or evidence.^[2][10] The literal Latin sense of a hole or cavity returned through science: from 1706 in anatomy for a follicle,^[2] from 1836 in botany for an air space in tissue or a pit on a lichen,^[2] from 1845 for the small cavities in bone,^[2] from 1867 in zoology for spaces among tissues that carry body fluids.^[2] A gap or empty space in general follows in 1872.^[2] Etymonline dates the scientific uses from about 1700.^[4]

Timeline

• 1663 – a missing portion in a manuscript or text.^[2][3]
• 1706 – in anatomy, a follicle in a mucous membrane.^[2]
• 1836 – in botany, an air space in plant tissue; a pit on a lichen.^[2]
• 1845 – in anatomy, a small cavity in bone.^[2]
• 1867 – in zoology, a space among tissues in place of vessels.^[2]
• 1872 – a gap or empty space in general.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A blank space or missing part, especially in a manuscript or book; a gap, also a defect: a lacuna in the surviving letters.^[5][11][2]
2. (anatomy) One of the tiny cavities in bone or cartilage that contain cells.^[5][11][2]
3. (biology) A small cavity or pit in an organism, such as an air space in plant tissue, or a space among tissues through which body fluids pass.^[11][2]
4. An ornamental sunken panel in a ceiling or dome; a coffer.^[11]

Word family

• lacunal
• lacunar
• lacunose

Related words

• lake
• lagoon

Usage notes

The plural is lacunae, the Latin form, or lacunas.^{[5][11][4][10]}

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins